Three astronauts successfully blasted off Monday to the International Space Station from Kazakhstan, a flawless launch that follows October's aborted mission.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The launch, which took place from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as the sun was setting, was the first crewed launch since an anomaly during booster separation sent two astronauts falling back to Earth in an emergency landing on October 11.

The spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:31 UTC on Monday. "We are psychologically and technically prepared for blast-off and any situation which, God forbid, may occur onboard". Kononenko is beginning his fourth mission to add to an impressive 533 days in space.

But the space agency's chief executive, former deputy prime minister Dimitry Rogozin, has been bullish about the project, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

Next year, however, Russian Federation will see intense global competition.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Sergei Prokopyev of Roscosmos will greet the trio when they arrive at the ISS.

As NPR's Bill Chappell reported in October, "The agency does have contracts with commercial companies like Boeing and SpaceX that are developing new vehicles to take astronauts up, but the first flights of those aren't scheduled until next year".

Canadian astronauts Bob Thirsk and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons watched the launch of astronaut David Saint-Jacques for the worldwide space station from Kazakhstan at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters Monday, December 3, 2018 in St. Hubert, Que.

NASA announced Monday that Hague and Ovchinin will now launch to the space station on February 28, along with NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch.

The crew repeatedly denied being nervous about flying and insisted the fact that the two-man crew had safely returned to Earth despite the dramatic mishap had demonstrated the reliability of the rocket's safety mechanisms.

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